Page 999 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 25 February 2009

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mothers alone; it is about the babies. Any father or eligible partner should be more than welcome to spend time with their babies and this should be supported. If it is the woman who is on the higher salary then it makes perfect sense for her to go back to work while the partner stays at home.

The Stanhope government is doing its best to support families in the ACT. For example, the ACT government provided additional funding in 2008-09 for the West Belconnen Children and Family Support Service. This service will facilitate access for disadvantaged families with children experiencing issues related to educational attainment, child development, health, family breakdown and parenting and domestic violence. In addition, the government will fund in 2008-09 the forward design of a third child and family centre in the Belconnen region.

In 2004, we released the ACT children’s plan, which established a whole-of-government approach to early childhood health and development and which placed children’s needs first. The most recent initiative in supporting early childhood development has been the development of early childhood schools, and these will be opened in 2009. The services provided within each of these schools will vary from site to site, but include education, health, childcare, parenting and early intervention programs.

The ACT government recognises the importance of early childhood services in supporting families and, accordingly, the ACT’s services are at the forefront of best practice. Family and employment structures and patterns have changed markedly over the decade and families are looking for programs and structures which better meet their needs now.

Finally, now is the time to take the next step and, with the assistance of the commonwealth, to invest further in our families in ways that we cannot at this level of government, and that many smaller employers cannot manage either. We are looking to do that through a paid national maternity leave scheme.

MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (3.31): I am not here to close the debate; I am speaking in response to Mr Hargreaves’s amendment. The government’s amendment does not conflict with the original purpose of my motion, which, in the light of the upcoming event of International Women’s Day on 8 March, was to call on the ACT government to implement their election promise of 18 weeks paid maternity leave for ACT public servants by including this commitment in the 2009-10 budget, and to show leadership by calling on the commonwealth government to accept the recommendations of the Productivity Commission report regarding maternity leave. Therefore, the Greens will support the government’s amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.32), by leave: I move the following amendments together:

(1) omit paragraph (1), substitute:


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